Fifty-nine years ago today, on Saturday 7 October 1967, Leeds United did something to Chelsea that's still the biggest home truth in this fixture's long, prickly history. Final score: Leeds United 7, Chelsea 0. Elland Road was packed to 40,460 — the biggest crowd of the season up to that point — and by full time, Don Revie's side had put on one of the most complete afternoons of their golden era.
It started fast and never really let up. Albert Johanneson opened the scoring after five minutes, Jimmy Greenhoff and Jack Charlton had it 3-0 inside a quarter of an hour, and Peter Lorimer made it four by half time. Chelsea came out for the second half still looking for an answer that never arrived: Eddie Gray added a fifth from outside the box on 60 minutes, Chelsea defender Marvin Hinton turned one into his own net for the sixth, and then, with twelve minutes left, captain Billy Bremner finished it with his back to goal — an overhead kick good enough that the local paper called it the goal of the game, on an afternoon with six others to choose from.
Chelsea, to make matters worse for themselves, turned up without a manager. Tommy Docherty had resigned just a day earlier following an FA suspension, leaving assistant Ron Suart to pick up the pieces from the touchline against a Leeds side that had, four days earlier in midweek, put nine past Luxembourg's Spora in the Fairs Cup. Sixteen goals in two games inside a week — not a bad return, even by Revie's exacting standards.
There was an edge to it, too. Earlier that year, Chelsea had edged Leeds out of the FA Cup semi-final in a result Elland Road hadn't forgotten by the time the two sides met again in the league. Seven goals later, the message had been sent.
It's a result that's held up remarkably well. Chelsea have been back to Elland Road more than fifty times since, and 7-0 still stands as the heaviest defeat Leeds have ever put on them in this fixture. Plenty of old scorelines shrink once you check the context — this one doesn't.
There's an obvious soundtrack for an afternoon like that, and it's still being belted out at Elland Road nearly six decades later. "Hello, hello, United are back" wasn't written for 7 October 1967 specifically, but it's hard to think of a performance it suits better — a Leeds side absolutely rampant, and an opponent with no answers and, that particular afternoon, no manager either.
Fifty-nine years on, this season's side have had their own early-campaign moments of scoring freely and sharing the goals around — Newcastle found that out at Elland Road last month. Nobody's promising another 7-0 is coming. But on the right afternoon, with the right opponent having a bad week of their own, you never quite rule it out either.
